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Strategic narrative is a storytelling framework. It creates efficient growth for companies by distilling the company’s strategy into a story that lays out clear stakes for buyers. Strategic narrative describes the buyer’s journey from a broken, old world into a new one filled with potential. They do this through the guidance of the seller’s brand and with the use of that brand’s product or service. Companies apply their strategic narrative across their buying journey to pull buyers through each stage.
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Story is behind every idea, cause, or product that’s gained widespread adoption in human history. The best products fail when they can’t get people to care about them—and the only way to create that type of emotional response is through a story.
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A brand story can be any story meant to capture a company’s beliefs or ethos. Strategic narrative is a specifically-designed brand story. Where brand stories have a variety of marketing-specific applications, the strategic narrative is used holistically by an organization to build an efficient go-to-market motion alongside a purpose-driven team.
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Your story is the foundation of an efficient customer journey. Brand story should increase conversion at every stage of your journey: clearer targeting of best-fit customers, urgency to engage with you, and more deals won.
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A brand story’s best use is to connect buyers with a specific view your brand has of the world. You can use your story to show your
buyer’s market is changing, why it is important for them to make a change, and why your brand is uniquely credible to help them navigate this shift. The brand story can then be applied anywhere from customer stories to product messaging to outbound. -
Your company already has a story. It’s how your team answers the question “what do you do?” and what your customers tell people when they’re asked what it’s like to work with you. Woden helps you refine that story so it resonates with buyers.
The StoryKernel is a strategic narrative that uncovers what makes you different. We craft that into a customer-centric story that you can use across sales, marketing and the rest of your company to win in your market.
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Look at any brand that defined a market or meaningfully changed buyer behavior, and you’ll find a good strategic narrative. By most tangible measures, the most successful strategic narrative at Woden has been for Redis. We built their narrative on the belief that the “companies that run fastest run Redis,” a story that has taken them from one paying customer to a more than $2BB valuation as of 2024.
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The best products fail all the time. Products “sell themselves” at very early stages of adoption. To grow into mass adoption, you need a story that customers can repeat on your behalf and that your team can use to deliver on your promise.
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Companies don’t make decisions. People inside those companies do. As buying committees get larger and buyers become more aware of alternatives, storytelling has never been more important in B2B. Your story connects the motivations of your buyer with the needs of their company and builds consensus for working with you.
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When a company comes to market without a defined story, it struggles to gain traction. You can easily fall into the trap of emphasizing features and benefits or what you believe makes you unique. Strategic narrative keeps the focus of your story on your buyer and what matters to them. It provides a framework for consistent storytelling across the customer journey.
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Differentiation connects what makes your brand unique with the specific needs of your buyer. Your brand story bridges this gap by reframing your buyers needs and changes in their world and related obstacles to overcome, and your unique qualities as what makes you a credible guide to help them navigate these changes.
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A brand manifesto is a way for companies to define their beliefs and their platform for change in the world. Manifestos tend to be internally focused: about the brand and what it wants. They can be a start for a strategic narrative by shifting the focus away from how great the brand is to how great its customers can be.
